National

I don't want this to sound like a "things were great when I was a kid, and now they suck" post, but the Olympics were great when I was a kid and now they suck. Seriously. The Olympics used to be awesome. It was Jim McKay's 'Wide World of Sports" on the steroids. Literally (Yes, I'm looking at you East Germany.) They showed all the sports including biathlon. Not because it looked like an American might medal in biathlon, but because when else were yo going to be able to see biathlon? Now its all skating and snowboarding. They'll cut away to bobsled in order to set up a Lola Jones puff piece, but that's about it. Back in the day, it was amateurs who did it for the love of the sport, (Do you believe in miracles?!?). Now it is millionaire snowboarders making pretend snowboarding is a sport while they drink Mountain Dew on the medal stand to fulfill the terms of their endorsement contracts. (Do you believe in cross-promotions?!?)

Sentor Coons, this is what a Senator sounds like:

Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren said today at a Senate Banking Committee hearing that JPMorgan chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon’s 74% pay raise to $20 million for the year “raises questions about whether our enforcement strategy is working or if it’s so bad that it makes banks more likely to break the law.” His bank paid over $20 billion in fines and compensation to homeowners this year to settle regulatory actions and lawsuits. The hearing on data security and financial stability brought four senior financial regulators and one senior Treasury official in front of the committee and provided a forum for yet another strong critique by the populist Massachusetts senator of what she sees as fundamentally weak regulation of the country’s largest banks. In particular, she once again called for more criminal cases that could result in jail time — as opposed to the enforcement actions and civil cases that can be brought by the regulators Warren was criticizing.

This letter was sent to National Republican Party Chairman Reince Priebus with a copy published in the Cape Gazette. The letter writer loves the idea limiting women's healthcare options, and is clearly a doctrinaire wingnut, but he is also a wingnut that wants the GOP to "win." (What good that would do anybody isn't disclosed.)

The General Assembly has been session for a couple weeks now, but this is your first Vote Tracker Update of the year. Why? Well, because the General Assembly has been slow to tackle the bills we have been tracking. To be fair, one week was cut short by both the Governor's State of the State and a crippling blizzard, but we finally got some action last week when Senate Bill 6, the mimimum wage increase, passed. Not to sound ungrateful, but I hereby call on someone in the General Assembly to introduce a new minimum wage increase bill immediately. Why? Well, President Obama is raising future federal contract minimum wages to $10.10 and called on the states and businesses to likewise act on their own without Congress to increase the minimum wage to $10.10. So now $8.25 effective NEXT year sounds quite paltry, even Scroogish. Hey business leaders and the vaunted Chamber of Commerce and all the state Democrats who are either paid off by the Chamber or live in fear of it, $10.10 is nothing. If the minimum wage kept pace with inflation since the 1960's, do you know what the minimum wage would be today? $22.00 an hour. So suffice it to say, the fight begins anew, and from the progressive point of view, while our legislators will be thanked for voting for a progressive priority in raising the minimum wage, they must do more, starting with this session.

Paul Waldman thinks Hillary makes Republicans not see or think straight. Because they hate her and Bill so much.

To take just one example, if Hillary runs, we’re going to be hearing a lot about Benghazi, because Republicans are not only sure she did something scandalous, they’re also sure that if they just hammer away at it long enough, everybody else will become convinced, too. But just like with Bill’s impeachment, exactly the opposite is likely to happen: the more they talk about it, the more voters will become convinced that they’ve taken leave of their senses.

And as if on cue, Rand Paul brings up Lewinsky.